Has anyone noticed the newest trend of "love, acceptance and tolerance" going around in so many circles of Christendom today? I mean, after all, isn't that what Jesus taught, to love one another as Christ has loved us and that this is the new commandment that replaced the law? (John 13:34) Doesn't this also mean acceptance and tolerance of others with unconditional love?

The answer is yes and no. For those who may have read and remember my post on "Double speak " this is exactly the same thing that goes on with these words. To refresh your memories, "Double speak " means having a different understanding of words with each person assuming the other is speaking using the same definition of the same words.

Satan is subtle: "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light". (2 Cor. 11:14) If Satan were blatantly obvious, then it would be simple to spot the falsehood, but that is what makes deception deceptive because it is a mixture of truth with falsehood. One way to do this is with "double speak", changing the meanings of words in one's minds without actually changing the words themselves.

Yes, God's love is unconditional because He IS love. This is His very being and essence. However, unconditional love does NOT mean unconditional acceptance and tolerance. If this really is what these words of acceptance and tolerance mean, then that would mean "universal salvation" is automatic for all of mankind despite man's sinful nature. If this were true, then the sacrifice Jesus paid for the sins of man was all in vain and there was no purpose for His shed blood upon the cross. This is why many outside of Christianity say that Jesus was just on an ego trip and that He was a deluded Messiah, nothing but a deranged man.

By the way, this view is taken by most in the field of Psychology, dubbed the "Messiah syndrome" that they apply to those who appear to be self-sacrificing in saving others from themselves. Very often, fundamental Christians are thought of as being deranged to believe Jesus is the Messiah and are just mimicking Him and so are deranged as well.

But, before we are to quick to exclude those from within Christian circles, we have "positive confessors" such as Robert Schuller who stated that Jesus was on an "ego trip" when he went to the cross (Living Positively One Day at a Time, p.201), and others such as Kenneth Copeland who says God was the greatest failure when He went to the cross and that His blood poured out did not atone for our sins. (Kenneth Copeland: From a personal letter to D.R.McConnell, dated 12/3/79. from A Different Gospel, p.120)

The deity of Jesus is attacked from within and from without the church of Christ at about the same rate. What is behind all of this? The new age false gospel of love, acceptance and tolerance and that all religions are equally valid. When the divinity of Jesus is diminished, then of course, Jesus is NOT the ONLY way to salvation, and this is exactly what many within Christian circles are promoting today. The attack against sound doctrine is coming about at an alarming rate and there are more and more sounding the alarm AGAINST FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIANS WHO ADHERE TO SOUND BIBLICAL DOCTRINE! Fundamental Christians are being attacked from both within and without the church and are being tagged as hateful, intolerant, and exclusionary, and considered a danger and a threat to world peace.

Before anybody begins to think I am being an "alarmist", consider this article I read today in the "Religion Section" of the Rocky Mountain News. I am not a fan of Terry Mattingly who leads the Institute of Journalism at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. because his views are fuzzy about where he stands on issues. In this instance, he made no comment on this article; he just reported it.

But, that is what you have me for. I am commenting on it as I already have in the lead up to this article, and after reading this article, see for yourselves if what I am saying is true or not.. Also, please understand that I am not condemning Catholicism nor am I attacking those who are of the Catholic Church. However, I do disagree with what is taught in much of Catholicism and the Pope himself is one who is promoting universal love, acceptance, and tolerance of other world religions along with many of the Protestant affiliation as well. It is this "Universal Brotherhood" that I am speaking against, the "One World Religion" the bible speaks of and calls it, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH". (Rev.17:5)

I will condense this article and concentrate on the highlights because it is quite long.

Ted Turner, the CEO of Turner Networks, was at a retirement party for anchorman Bernard Shaw when he was trying to figure out what was on this woman's forehead. He soon realized it was "Ash Wednesday" and that they were wearing ashes because of it. When several other Catholics were standing nearby, he asked, "What are you, a bunch of Jesus freaks"? This is nothing new for Turner, though. Previously he had stated that Christianity is for losers, pro-lifers are bozos, and the Pope is a Polish idiot. When this latest story came out about Turner's antics, he apologized after the outrage from his critics. He said, "I apologize to all Christians for my comment about Catholics wearing ashes on their foreheads. I do not believe in any form of prejudice or discrimination, especially religious intolerance".

Turner spoke at length on this topic last fall at the United Nations addressing more than 1,000 Rabbis, swamis, monks, ministers and other spiritual leaders. Turner also created the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders to whom Turner stressed during those meetings that he had at one time wanted to be a Christian missionary until he understood that missionaries are the enemies of truth and tolerance. He said, "Instead of all these different gods, maybe there's one God who manifests himself and reveals himself in different ways to different people. How about that?" He also went on to say, "Basically, the major religions which have survived today don't have blood sacrifice and they don't have hatred behind them. Those which have done the best are the ones that are built on love". He further stated, "It's time to get rid of hatred. It's time to get rid of prejudice. It's time to have love and respect and tolerance for each other."

Quoting from this article, Mattingly says, Turner doesn't consider himself anti-religious. He is merely opposed to religious groups that he believes are intolerant of other faith groups. Turner believes he is not anti-Christian, but he is opposed to Christians who still believe that Jesus is the only path to salvation. To continue with the article, Mattingly says that Turner is not alone in seeing direct links between missionaries and hate groups, between evangelism and violence.

As part of a global United Religious Initiative, Mattingly continues to write that California Episcopal Bishop William Swing has said that for "religions to pursue peace among each other, there will have to be a godly cease-fire, a temporary truce where absolute, exclusive claims of each will be honored, but an agreed-upon neutrality will be exercised in terms of proselytizing, condemning, murdering or dominating. These will not be tolerated in the United Religions zone." The article continues on to say, "Critics who think Turner and his allies are anti-religious crusaders are not seeing the big picture', said Mary Joe Anderson, a contributing editor at the Catholic journal Crisis. "There's a reason", she continues to say,."Turner is so critical of religious groups that he believes are mired in the past. He is convinced that he is helping create the religion of the future". "Ted Turner has a kind of vision," she said. "He sees a world in which everyone is free to live the way Western man lives, with three TV's, two BMWs and one child. He believes man is evolving spiritually, as well as physically. He is absolutely sure that he is going to be a leader in what happens next." (End of article)

I don't know about you, but this is one great big "WOW'" to me. Notice first that Mattingly did not comment either negatively or positively in this article. I truly believe Mattingly is also of the mindset of "can't we just all get along" himself. I draw this conclusion from other articles he had written that I have read and he seems to be somewhat of a fence sitter trying to stay out of the fracas portraying himself as an objective religion journalist.

First I would like to ask a question. How can one be a Christian, in any form or fashion, and say that Jesus is NOT the ONLY means for salvation? What other kind of "Christians" could Turner possibly be referring to that he views as tolerant? The answer to that is quite simple: Christian Churches who deny the divinity of Jesus in some form or another. This is done by either elevating man to the status of godhood or by bringing Jesus down to the level of man.

It is clear that any Christian who says "Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that no man comes to the Father but by him" and that "He is God from all eternity manifested in the flesh" will be associated with bigoted hate groups that are the enemies of truth and tolerance.

Shame to Mattingly and others who do not have the courage or the conviction to stand up for truth and who are buckling under the pressure from the "Religious Zealots" of the "New Age" "One World Religion" gurus like Turner and his associates. Worse yet, shame to the world leaders of Christianity who join in with Turner in these bogus World Peace Summits of the United Nations gatherings when Jesus Christ and fundamental Christians are the clear target of these gatherings being portrayed as the enemies of world peace.

There is not much we can do about this because God already said this would come to pass in the latter days. All we can do as individuals is to stand firm on the truth and bring as many as we can into the kingdom of God by presenting the pure gospel of Jesus, "salvation by grace and not of works" and let them know that Jesus paved the way to heaven by his own blood and that salvation is available to "whosoever will".

In His love,
Pare